Arielen
Arielen Thiess, of real name Yelena Karelina, is an unaligned werewolf struggling to remain in control of her bloodthirst and supernatural rage. Canifian runaway, she's fled as far as she possibly could from the place she called home during her youth. She has since taken up the mantle of a Slayer and wanderer. Personality Once a vessel for a burning idealism, she is a sly cynic steeped in blood that is never quite cut down by the cruelty of life that has only served to reshape that idealism into feral abandon. Relentless, driven and paranoid, she is prone to alienating those around her though seldom by device. Outwardly, she is calm and collected, a rather calculating individual that happens to be curious about everything. Honoring contracts and business deals no matter the employer, she is a creature of posterity, lies and general detachment with an unparalleled love of violence and a mindless thirst for death. She has stated on a few occasions that she only hunts down her own kin if absolutely needed, and only if they are causing trouble West of the Salve. While a professional Slayer, she does not happen to be a murderer, though she will kill in self-defense, regardless of the attacker's race. When set off and the shade of red that clouds her vision finally takes over, she's known to be extremely aggressive, outwardly hostile and doesn't take well to others 'stealing her kill' or putting something down quietly. That aggression is usually directed onto the offending companion or the nearest one. In those moments, her control wanes and all that's left is a bloodthirsty monster. Appearance Boasting a stalwart figure, the woman in her seemingly mid to late 30s presents an imposing figure standing at roughly 6'1" interlaced with a feral grace. Carrying herself with the meditative readiness that betrays many a year of intensive training, her gaze is focused, bearing a concentrated wariness that threatens to trip hostile. Her hands are calloused and scarred, fingers crooked and bent from too many years of fighting without properly binding her hands. The rhythm of her steps is somewhat jagged, accented with a light limp, the source of which can be traced back to what is likely a problem with her left knee. Dark-haired with sharp traits featuring high, prominent cheekbones, her eyes betray her werewolf heritage, the silver of her eyes framed by black, standing out all the more because of the ivory pallor of her skin and the dark shade of her hair. She is seldom seen without tinted goggles West of the Salve for this reason, as she does not wish to unnerve anyone. Over her equipment, she wears a heavy coat boasting many pockets filled with trinkets. The only weapons she bears are the fighting knives worn in sheathes at her ribs, the boot knife strapped to her well-worn, good quality boots seems to be more of a utility tool more suited for dressing a kill or cutting tree limbs. Around her left wrist, she carries a Witchwood Icon on a simple chain, pinning her as one of the members of the Witchwood Order, alongside of Kestrel Pavlichenko and Kadar Rahim. Known background Arielen Thiess, named Quarrelsome, title gifted by her fellow slayers, is a skilled liar, legally-challenged thug and has taken up many a random job as a Slayer in several different regions. Her favorite things include beating people (And monsters) to death with her bare hands, wearing cool coats, combat boots, cursing at people and hating Zamorak. Full-blooded werewolf un-pledged to Zamorak in either action nor word, she struggles significantly with controlling her transformations but maintains an iron-clad will and practices routine meditation in an attempt to remain in total control. Given that she is not in control, she often strays and is prone to wandering, especially when she feels what little command she has over her shifting wane. Subject and arguable victim to her affliction, much of her life has been dedicated to finding a proper outlet for the savage, homicidal inclination her kind are burdened with. In equal parts terrified and enthralled with the wrong half of herself, she has long since escaped the fate of being a servant to Lord Drakan by integrating normal human society (albeit its fringes). She's a known member of the Witchwood Order and of the Flaming Covenant. Rumor would have it that she takes tasks exclusively from Mazchna and favors her Taverley residence whenever she takes time away from work to collect herself. History Fourth Age Daughter of a Canifian smuggler by the name of Aleksei, much of Yelena's younger years were spent being groomed to perform smuggling runs prior to her coming of age, as she could cross the Salve but he and his wife, Darya. Trained to gauge terrain and taught to speak Common before most of the other children so to make her job easier, she was noted to be an exceptional tracker. The village elders were at the time unaware that she was used by her father to smuggle in goods into Canifis, believing her simply to be a very rash and withdrawn girl and often punished her for wandering away, oblivious to the true reason behind her disappearance. This burden was shouldered as her due as it was the only way that she would receive any form of recognition from either of her parents, who only regarded their child as a tool for their ambitions. Years later, when Yelena was still young, her mother was sacrificed to the Vyres due to lack of people to exchange for the tithing, the youth became even further withdrawn and even became somewhat outwardly aggressive, which greatly affected the efficiency of her work. Noticing this, her father attempted to sell her out to the elders and to their superiors, as she was no longer of any use to him but he still wished to profit and advance his own plans. Suspecting something afoul with her father, as the jobs became fewer and fewer, Yelena never returned from her final job and instead fled to Misthalin. Accustomed to crossing large distances in as short of a time as possible, she stole maps and food as she went. Several days passed before the Elders became increasingly worried for her and as her disappearance never usually lasted so long, they resigned themselves to sending small search parties into the Mort Myre swamp and the Haunted Woods, not knowing her to cross the Salve in her wanderlust. During this period of time, Aleksei played the act of worried father until a Vampyre came around and he admitted to them that his daughter occasionally crossed the Salve in the effort of luring people to their village, offering several pretenses and preying mostly on adventurers that weren't familiar with the affliction of the inhabitants of Canifis until it was too late so that they could be used as food for both the Vampyres and Werewolves. The word from Aleksei was passed up the chain and, believing the girl to be supposedly uniquely skilled in this effort, her father was granted leave to search for his daughter. On her end, Yelena managed to successfully survive for some weeks, holed up in a small town's sewers, not wishing to go disturb anyone and much less wanting to be found. Before long, a small group of local necromancers began using the sewers as a hiding place for their largely failed creations and the young werewolf became cornered. Much to her benefit, a Slayer, well-versed in the systematic destruction of dark creatures and belonging to the Witchwood Order happened upon rumors of dark creatures in the sewers of the town she was holed up in. The Slayer by the name of Anlow Thiess investigated these rumors and felled all of the failed monstrosities he came across, though the culprits were never found, he happened upon the young girl seeming to be roughly fourteen or fifteen at the time and spoke with her at a length, surprised to find her there. Yelena, not seeing fit to lie, or perhaps not understanding the danger in telling the truth, explained what happened to him and begged for an opportunity to prove herself. Anlow took her under his wing when he recognized her bottomless hatred and loathing for the Vampyre race, choosing to incidentally give her supernatural rage an outlet and giving her life the direction that it needed. He, too, utilized her innate tracking ability and refined her knowledge of language, cartography and taught her a plethora of other skills, amongst them survival skills that didn't include theft that she would need in her life as a Slayer and punished her when required, becoming something of a father figure to her, though there was always a slight distance between them. Morality was introduced swiftly and with a fury, though never directed into the blows she had been raised to fear by her real father. He taught her that she was being punished not because she got caught doing something, but because things like stealing were fundamentally wrong. In many ways, Anlow fashioned her into becoming the person that she is today, teaching her the importance and value in knowing when a monster such as a Troll simply needs to be relocated to its natural habitat instead of killed, though she is seldom regarded as a good person. When Aleksei finally caught wiff of his kin on one fateful day, not knowing her to be accompanied, he immediately passed on the offensive, attempting to drag her away by the hair, believing her to have set up camp alone in the wilds as he had taught her. Smelling human on her, he proceeded to beating her and incidentally lingered in the camp until Anlow's return. The Slayer did not hesitate, though it was unknown to him at the time that the Werewolf he set aflame was Yelena's father himself. The Werewolf died cursing them both with pure venom behind his words. Following the event, Anlow tried several times to teach his young protégé to use magic but to no avail - the young woman displayed no aptitudes whatsoever and seemed to be quite fearful of fire after the incident with her father, becoming somewhat traumatized by it. When she filled out enough, she became rather skilled in traditional sword and board fighting. By the time the young woman had nearly reached majority, given that her kin age at a slowed pace, Anlow was pushing his mid 50s. When he retired, leaving Yelena 'in charge', he offered her his Witchwood Icon and inducted her into the Order. He died in peace of old age as a happy old man, watching his young protégé flourish into a ferocious combatant and knowing that she would one day become an outstanding Slayer, proud of the young woman he eventually called his daughter. Before he passed, he patched her in with the other members of the Order, hoping that others could help refine her training and so that she would always have a family to be a part of, given that she was very much prone to loneliness after having been raised in a very small village, knowing that his reputation and good standing with the Order would give her the sway she needed to be treated fairly by the other members, at least until she proved herself, as she had to him decades prior. Given her age, these events occurred during the mid to late parts of the Fourth Age, around the 1550-1600s. She later traveled to Port Phasmatys when a few other members of the Order had relocated there but was lucky enough not to get stuck within the confines of the city. Fifth Age Early on in the Fifth Age, Arielen was primarily residing in the then small town of Ardougne with one of her companions from the Order whom she was wrongfully rumored to be romantically involved with. They resided in that region until 'Mad' King Narras Ardginas came into power and his actions - notably his invention of a 'game' he dubbed Hangman drove them to relocate to Seer's Village. When her companion was slain while they were on assignment to look into the Troll population residing in a cave adjacent to Keldagrim, she eventually moved to Varrock only to establish herself in the once nameless Ghost Town of Edgeville after managing to flee from the Siege of Varrock. Much of the Fifth Age was spent traveling due to work, though she owned several small properties across the world under the name of 'Arielen Thiess', declaring herself to be a descendant of Anlow, as it was no longer viable that she pass off as his daughter, given that he died centuries prior. Sixth Age Following Guthix's death, she resided primarily in Taverley, enjoying the peaceful life the druids lead and the change of pace and was established as a loyal Slayer. During her time spent there, they further refined her knowledge of medicine that she had picked up so many years prior with her father though she was eventually drawn into leaving, though she would always return to her Taverley residence, considering it her home. Some time later, Yelena was inducted as a member of the Flaming Covenant and her Witchwood Icon was gifted to one of her Slayer companions, Kaz, whom she is extremely closed to. Exempting Anlow; her mentor, handler, adoptive father and close friend, Kaz is the first person to have truly accepted her affliction and she has since developed fond feelings towards the Easterner. While she does wear a gold band on her left ring finger, she is not legally married, though she expresses that legal marriage might be complicated, given that they're both wanderers. As of yet, she purposely avoids any conflict concerning the Gods. Bloodsong Shortly after Kaz and Yelena are wed, she hears bothersome rumors of peculiar events occurring in and around Edgeville; crops dying, milk curdling, food spontaneously going bad. Believing it to be the work of a weak demon or perhaps an experimenting magi, she travels there to investigate. When she reached Edgeville, her arrival and research was originally met with animosity, fear and misunderstanding by the general civilian population who didn't wish to attract further misfortune by speaking of the events. Finally, she resigned herself to investigating the cases pertaining to the travelers and wanderers in the small town who informed her of rumors to the north of a cursed tree. Being rather superstitious because of the nature of her work, she headed North to look into it. Upon her arrival, she was faced with a Bloodwood Tree surrounded by scorched earth, fresh blood and many skeletons. Understanding little of magic herself and how to cleanse the tree, she instead took a more hands on route to investigate the burrow beneath it. The small passageway was covered in bones, the ground soggy from blood and the Slayer spent some time making her way through it before arriving at a large antechamber. The walls of the were covered in strange, eerie, pulsing symbols. Her exploration drove her to search further, in the main room, a wide, spacious area similarly covered in markings. From there, she could hear a heart beat somewhere nearby, within the bowels of the earth. Captivated by the eerie scene before her; the roots of the tree preventing the cavern from crumbling in on itself and any occupants, the symbols and the strange heartbeat, she lingered on in silence until she could hear a distant song, presumably emitted by the tree itself. Hours later, Kaz joined her, taking her somewhat by surprise. He reminded her that he was there because she had left him a letter saying that she wished for him to join her, only for him to be met with confusion and a touch of fear, as she hadn't left him the letter. When he pressed, explaining that the letter had been most definitely made by her hand, she let the subject drop, directing his attention to the glyphs adorning the wall and to the heartbeat of the tree. After some time, she told him about the sing she heard. Before long, the culprit for it arrived, a magi by the name of Kara introduced the tree and what it served for. The gentle, pure chime of the song they heard twisted upon her appearance, becoming distorted and dissonant, immediately inciting feelings of anger. Presumably, this was because, so close to the heart of the tree, they became affected by it - felt its passion for violence, its drive to anger and hatred, it's loathing of the dark magic it was born of and is sustained by. As the spirit communicated with them, their rage intensified until they were nearly driven to violence. Before they reached the brink, the spirit reeled them back and offered them a pact; she would take something from them, and they would be offered power. Still affected by the Tree's influence, they accepted without haste. Kaz surrendered a part of his heart - his ability to cope with the things that he had done as a soldier for Khan Ryuu and Yelena offered up her view of the world and its beauty, causing the world she saw to become to desolate and drained of much of its color. The pair were infused with the Bloodwood Tree's instinctive hate of magi and became witch-hunters capable of nullifying the effects of spells and of cancelling out curses because of engravings imbued with its magic along their bodies. Unfortunately, the price they paid was higher than they originally believed it would be. Plagued with night-terrors and near constant hallucinations, Yelena began resorting to intoxication, usually via needle, becoming increasingly mentally unstable, aggressively volatile and withdrawn, her husbands behavior also having significantly altered, though he chose to shoulder the burden as much as he could and attempted to keep her company whenever she holed herself up away from the group. Shortly after being arguably blessed, Lena became prone to wandering, even going so far as to leaving Kaz behind with increasing frequency so that she could expand her hunting territory. On one notable occasion, she wandered all the way to Yanille, presumably to hunt Ogres and instead made the acquaintance of an arms-man named Otto. The two became fast friends, understanding each other to the point of no longer requiring words to convey what they wished. Some days later, she finally managed to convince him to desert the Yanillian military and to do whatever it was that pleased him. Not knowing anything other them combat, Otto decided to become a member of the Hexers as well and has since gained entry to the Witchwood Order safe-houses as well, though he was not inducted into the order. Continuing on with her wandering, Yelena dropped Otto off with the Hexers and wandered to the far North - to the Wilderness so that she could resume her typical demon-hunting where she met a demonologist by the name of Dalis. To her frustration, he needed medical assistance and the Slayer resigned herself to watch over him while he recovered enough to be able to teleport himself away to safety. When the pair heard a conversation down the hallway, she made a judgement call and decided to whisk him off with her by way of her enchanted slayer ring to her residence east of the Slayer Tower. Believing himself to be life-indebted to the Slayer, Dalis offered her an impressive sum of coin that she respectfully declined. Eventually, the pair struck a deal about Otto instead to have his records purged of any and all accusations of desertion so that no one would come after him lawfully and those that did so under the table could be put down without impunity. Even with such a deal having been struck, Dalis maintained that he had not given her enough payment for her services, a small something that the Slayer resented somewhat, having to continuously shoot down his offers of money and other assorted favors. Tools of the trade Equipped with blessed silvthrill fighting knives, she has been known to tote around a silvthrill spear or a flail around Morytania when she's there either on task or for personal reasons. Typically, she carries a silvithrill blade that she wears across her back and seldom parts with. Barring those, there are small, round balls of holy water at her belt, along with smoke bombs should she need to run away from an assignment. Items of interest * Witchwood icon. Capable of nullifying certain magical forces such as the effects of a cave horror's screams. They render her immune to all of the different types of curses. * Enchanted ring. A small enchanted slayer gem on a gold band. Typical Slayer item. Trivia * Major character inspirations are: Boo Radley (To Kill a Mockingbird), Hari Michaelson aka Caine Black Knife (Caine's Law series by Matthew Stover), Mary Ann Bell (The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien) and Durzo Blint (Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks). * The last name "Thiess" is a tribute to Thiess of Kaltenbrun, a man that claimed to be a werewolf and that he and other werewolves went to Hell to fight Devils and Witches. He called himself the "Hound of God". * Her real last name, Karelin is a tribute to Aleksandr Karelin, considered the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time with 887 matches won and only two losses. * This character has a blog where journals, inspiration and RP logs can be found. Category:Characters Category:Female Category:Werewolves Category:Slayer